Thinking Inside the Box
by cassierules
Summary: NCIS:LA watches NCIS....just a short thing.


Thinking Inside the Box

Summary: Eric's sick and the team gets him hooked on the best TV show ever. NCIS!

Eric Beal sneezed into what had to be his thirtieth Kleenex of the hour, feeling absolutely miserable. First off, Hetty had left a long list of things to be finished when he felt up to accessing the interface through his laptop (which he didn't), the LA sun was way too bight and he hadn't considered coming down with whatever this was when he'd signed the lease on the place, and worst yet, he was dead bored. Real surfing definitely wasn't an option when channel surfing felt like running eight miles.

If there was a bright side to all this, though, Hetty had let the team go early, provided they got their case reports in early the next day. Eric sometimes suspected that despite Hetty being scarier than facing down a fanatical terrorist (or so Nate and Sam said) the woman had to have a heart in there somewhere. Kensi and Nate had come by first, now camped out in the kitchen with a recipe card from Sam's wife and oven mitts, trying to whip up....well, Eric didn't know, but knowing the both of them, something he would probably politely refuse later. Sam and G were apparently coming, so Dom said on the phone, once the three of them picked up some "stuff". All in all, a sick day and spending the night lounging around the house with your team could have been way, way worse. Yawning, Eric switched the TV to ZNN, ready for his daily dose of depressing world happenings. After a while, it really wasn't that depressing, which according to Nate, was actually quite disturbing in itself. At least it was numbing...kind of like a murmured lullaby...really....

"Hey, you! Hang 10!", a familiar voice shouted above him. Sam.

"You're not using the lingo right...", Eric muttered sleepily, shifting in the couch to reach for his glasses as Sam clapped him on the shoulder. "Ow, hey!"

"Ha, you look like hell.", G laughed. "Sam here told me I looked like hell after I got shot, but you already look worse."

Eric groaned. Even when he was sick, they couldn't just...

"Well, at least your ears don't wiggle.", G added. Sam's eyes rolled skyward.

"I'm tellin' you, my ears don't wiggle!", he protested as they headed into the kitchen. Dom laid a paper bag on the coffee table.

"They're in love.", Kensi observed dryly, setting down a tray of Chicken Noodle soup on the table beside the bag. "Eric, stop looking at it like I cooked the giant squid into it. Nate cooked. I was on Twitter." Eric nodded obligingly.

"Look, I'm not gonna offer an opinion on Sam's ears, guys!", Nate cried, throwing the oven mitts down on a little chest beside the door.

"Leave him alone, guys.", Kensi said, shaking her head as she rifled through the contents of the box.

"The woman at the counter said those were the last DVD's they had. It's like the whole LA area is trying to catch up on the show.", Dom told her.

"Ya think? It's gotten some crazy press over the summer, plus the new season just started, which probably brought in a whole crop of new viewers." Nate added.

Sam and G had pulled up dining chairs from the kitchen for themselves and Dom, while Kensi had kicked off her socks and was busy working the DVD player with Nate.

"Okay, guys? What exactly are we doing here?", Eric felt obliged to ask. Sure, they were his friends, but just the fact that five people were going about their business in his place was just a little unnerving.

"Introducing you to America's latest non-teenybopper obsession.", Kensi told him, scrolling through the DVD menu.

"Low-budget film?", Eric guessed, hoping that the team had gotten together some sick arthouse stuff.

"Nah, the #1 TV series in the country, NCIS.", Nate replied as he pawed the remote out from between a couple of DVD cases.

"They made a TV series about...us?"

"Well, it's based on a DC team, but it's our banner. After those Thom. E. Gemcity books got so popular, CBS jumped on it and made a TV series. You know, like how they put out The Good Wife after having nothing on the news but politicians and hookers? It's been on air for a long time, but kinda just picked up over the last year."

"Yep.", Sam said after a long sip from his soup bowl. "It's a great show, actually. Does a nice job with the Navy. Some pretty good stories too. Solid stuff."

G nodded his head up and down, eyes glued to Sam. Kensi rolled her eyes.

"Hey, earth to G! We're starting with 'Call of Silence' from Season Two, Eric. It's the best one to start with. And G, we're skipping past all the crap between Micheal Weatherly and Cote de Pablo's characters, so to save my sanity.", Kensi shouted, pressing play.

"What? But I like that stuff! Plus, the Israeli chick is hot!", G complained. Sam muttered something and sighed.

"She messed up the entire show! Not to mention, she's a Mary Sue that makes NCIS look like a bunch of chumps. Since when was she a citizen anyway? Gibbs should've left her ass in Somalia!", Kensi raged. Nate patted her shoulder.

"C'mon, Kenz, let's not ruin it for Eric.", he said softly, as the opening credits played.

Eric was pretty sure he liked the TV NCIS by the time, with much skipping, hasty explanation, and DVD switching, they were midway through Season Three's "Bait". The wisecracking banter had gotten laughs even from G, and Kensi was quick to point out the landmarks of every Marine base featured. Though the tech could have used an upgrade, Eric guessed that was how they did things in DC. The fear that Mark Harmon's character seemed to inspire in everyone around him reminded Nate vaugely of Hetty, while Dom would chuckle deviously at each prank pulled on Sean Murray's resident Probie.

"He's just dreaming of when he can pull that stuff on some unsuspecting Probie.". G teased.

Sam cuffed him across the back of the head. "Shut up, G."

There were some genuinely sad moments as well, and they skipped through quite a bit of season five's "In the Zone" as Kensi spent most of it buried in Nate's shirt, though even that didn't compare to the one-two punch of Season Six's "Cloak and Dagger"

By the time they'd gotten to "South by Southwest", it was four am and Kensi was sleeping, sprawled over Eric's armchair in the corner, Nate leaned against the side of the chair like a faithful dog. Dom had his head down over the coffee table and Sam and G had found (noticeably) opposite ends of the living room to set up sheets they'd found in Eric's back closet.

Eric however, kept on, getting through "Dead Reckoning" before he drifted off to sleep. The things he remembered of the night before, a whole lot of banter, pranks, tough cases and cute little moments between the characters that sometimes made you cry (though being a man, he wasn't going to advertise it).

For little people in the box, they sure did a great job of capturing the spirit of NCIS.

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End file.
